Uncertainty Continues At Apartments Where Ebola Patient Stayed

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Many North Texans are asking, what’s being done to keep the Ebola virus contained?

We now know officials with Dallas County Health and Human Services are monitoring more than a dozen people. Among those are family members of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, the school-aged children who came in contact with him, and the rescue crew that took him to the hospital.

Since arriving in Dallas, Duncan had been staying at the Ivy Apartments in northeast Dallas. Many now consider the location ground zero for the North Texas Ebola case, since Duncan’s public and private contact all happened at the complex.

The Ivy is one of a dozen apartment and condo communities used as affordable home locations for immigrant and refugee resettlement families.

(credit: CBSDFW.COM)

According to Dallas Fire-Rescue, paramedics transported Duncan from the apartment complex. We know there is current medical monitoring of five children connected to Duncan, but many residents with children say that’s an area where they have concerns, so many kids are in contact with each other.

“To find out they live across the street… no one told us. No one told us. If I didn’t see you guys, I wouldn’t have known,” said apartment resident Sandra Sestic. “I’m dumbfounded. I can’t believe it. There are a lot of children around here.”

The Ivy is now covered with private security and police, but that’s doing little to ease fears by parents like Elizabeth Rayo. “It concerns me, because I have kids. I want to be safe for my kids.”

Most mothers who talked with CBS 11 News said their biggest concern was lack of information.

Mom Toni Gomez said, “It concerns us. We don’t know… so the kids don’t get sick. We just don’t know what is going on around here.”

There are more than 20,000 people living in the Five Points area of Dallas where the Ivy Apartment complex is located.